Harris turns down MSU for music career

Downingtown East senior Jay Harris, arguably the best scholastic wide receiver in Pennsylvania, has decided he is going to excel in an endeavor other than football — rap music.

The star player has informed Michigan State University that he will not enroll there in the fall. Instead, he plans to pursue his fledgling music career.

The electrifying receiver hauled in 54 catches for 792 yards and 13 touchdowns and helped lead the Cougars to a Ches-Mont League title. He was ranked by ESPN as the 17th best senior prospect in the state and the second best receiver.

Harris, who goes by the name “Jay DatBull,” will be working on his lifetime dream of being a successful rapper. Harris recently put out a video titled “DatBull for Life” that initially received 50,000 views on YouTube.

Since the situation with Michigan State became a national story, however, the number of views has skyrocketed to almost 750,000.

Harris said he will be working with rap producer M.Stacks after Stacks reportedly viewed his video. The song is one of nine that Harris has put on YouTube.

But, Stacks’ manager, Miguel Brown Sr., told The Huffington Post website that Stacks had had no contact with Harris. Given the increasing traffic to Harris’ YouTube videos, Brown said he would reach out to Harris to perhaps make some kind of deal.

“I know he has the gumption to do what he does and somebody is listening to him,” Brown said to HuffPost.

“I have always been into music since I was a little kid,” Harris told the Daily Local News on Thursday. “And since my sophomore year at Downingtown East I really started to want to pursue a rap career. Rap music is my passion and that is the direction I want to go right now. I just realized that this is the right thing to do right now and being reached out to by such a producer like M.Stacks really made me feel good.”

News of Harris’ change of plans broke nationally several days ago when national organizations began reporting that Michigan State had pulled its scholarship offer due to the explicit nature of the video. On it, Harris is seen lighting a marijuana cigarette and singing various explicit lyrics.

When asked if it was his choice to not attend Michigan State or if the school pulled his football scholarship, Harris said he was never contacted by the school about the video.

“I informed Michigan State that I would not be coming there and they never even mentioned the video to me,” he stated. “To do this right now just seemed like the right thing for me to do.”

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio told mlive.com Thursday: “There are certain expectations we expect to be held if you are a Michigan State football player. You have to have the commitment, you have to communicate, and there has to be trust. When there’s a breakdown in those areas, you have to part ways.”

In a statement, Downingtown Area School District Superintendent Patricia McGlone said: “The district has been advised by counsel that what Mr. Harris chooses to do outside of school property on his own time is his constitutional right. We are, however, terribly saddened by Mr. Harris’ choices.”